Sunday, 15 January 2012

Two rather different stories from this weekend, both taking place at the Co-op car park on Westbury Court Road.

On Friday early evening, a female office worker returned to her car to find it had been broken into in the car park, around 7.00 pm. She was understandably distressed and was on the phone to the police abut the theft. It is not known whether any items were removed from the vehicle.

On Sunday, I observed a young man dumpster diving in the large red rubbish bin in the same car park. I had often thought this was an obvious spot for a bit of freeganism, but had never actually seen it taking place here. The diver was a young man - would estimate he was in his early twenties - wearing a pair of red shorts and a tee- shirt and carrying a rucksack. After making his preliminary sweep of the site, he returned and leaned head first into the oversize dumpster in search of edibles. I was surprised how long he remained in an inverted position. His feet and legs only were visible as he rummaged through the co-op detritus.

The young man emerged with what looked like a couple of loafs of bread and one or tow other items - all wrapped in their original packaging and all, apparently, fit for human consumption, despite being past their legal sell-by date.

A fellow Westbury resident, who worked at a Clifton branch of Starbucks, tells me that after the cafe closed, unsold food items were regularly placed outside in or next to the bins. Company policy did not allow employees to take food home, or to re-sell or give it away. Which doesn't mean, of course, that people could not help themselves were they so inclined.